Legacy
by sodalite
Summary: ONE SHOT The summer before OOTP Fred and George make a discovery about the Marauder’s map, whilst Sirius and Remus remember days which have long since faded away.


Disclaimer – all characters, people, places etc are the creation of JK Rowling and are Not Mine.

Summary – ONE SHOT The summer before OOTP Fred and George make a discovery about the Marauder's map, whilst Sirius and Remus remember days which have long since faded away.

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Legacy 

On the second day of the summer, Fred Weasley was sat opposite his brother, George, at the long table in the kitchen of number 12 Grimmauld place. Apart from themselves, Lupin and Sirius, the house was entirely empty. Mrs Weasley had taken Ron and Ginny back to the burrow earlier that morning to collect more of their belongings, which were to be kept at Grimmauld Place for the summer and Hermione wasn't arriving for another three days.

Scattered across the table were various scraps of parchment, covered with writing and complex calculations. They were planning their new range of sweets, at the moment, tentatively titled skive-sweets, although that was likely to change.

"What we really need," muttered Fred, as he scratched out yet another useless calculation, "Is a little help from Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, they'd probably do all this in about a minute."

"Definitely!" George agreed, "I do wonder what happened to them, you know, why we don't all buy our products from 'Marauders inc'"

Fred glanced up at his brother, "You know, I never thought of that. Do you think they're still alive?"

"Maybe," George answered after a moment's thought, "I suppose one of them could be alive. We never knew when they attended Hogwarts, I mean, it could have been a thousand years ago."

"But something as fragile as the map couldn't have survived that long, nah, I reckon a hundred years, tops."

"Fred!" George sounded slightly exasperated, "They created a map that shows everywhere and everyone in the castle, how hard would it be to add a strengthening charm to a piece of parchment?"

"Fair point bro. Just trying to narrow down the search."

The twins lapsed back into silence, quills scratching faintly on parchment. There was a crash from upstairs, Buckbeak, Fred thought, he knew Sirius was feeding him. He held his breath, awaiting the shrieking of Mrs Black's portrait. It never came. Fred wondered if Sirius' mother had really been that bad when she was alive, or whether she had been painted in a particularly bad mood. By Sirius' reaction to the house though, it would seem that his entire family had been that bad. His thoughts drifted to Harry, who two days ago had given George and himself a thousand galleons for their joke shop. He was glad Harry had found Sirius, he could not imagine growing up without his parents, and after what Harry had been through at the end of the previous year, he knew he needed a father figure.

He had been shocked the first time he met Sirius, especially as he had been a dog named Snuffles for at least an hour, before he changed back into human form. A thought occurred to Fred then, one that neither he nor his brother had ever managed to come up with.

"Animagi!" He said, causing George to jump and splatter ink on his most recent calculations.

"What?"

"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. They all relate to animals, they were animagi!" In all the hours he and George had spent puzzling over who the Marauders were, Fred couldn't believe he hadn't thought of this before, "Wormtail, an animal with a worm-like tale, a mouse, possibly, or a rat. Prongs, antlers, some form of deer I would say."

"Padfoot, that could mean anything, a creature with paws." George mused.

"Large paws, by the sound of it, silent and deadly. Wouldn't want to meet him down a dark alley."

"You'll like the next one less," said George, "What creature is most often related to the moon?"

Comprehension dawned on Fred's face, "So Moony either was a werewolf, or his animagus form was that of one. I didn't think that was possible."

"It isn't." A voice from the doorway made both of them jump. Lupin laughed at their reaction, "A werewolf is a creature that can only come about through biting, it isn't possible to recreate that as an animagus. Who were you talking about?"

Fred felt his racing heart slow down somewhat; he didn't think Lupin would approve of the marauders, "Oh, no-one really, we were trying to work on something for school."

Lupin raised an eyebrow, but didn't press the matter, instead he said, "I'm just nipping out, Sirius is still with Buckbeak, so if he asks tell him I won't be long."

"Certainly," answered Fred, "May we enquire as to where you are going?"

Lupin stared at him quite sternly, but seemed vaguely amused, "No."

Fred shrugged, "Worth a try, don't ask don't get."

"Or know in this case," commented George.

Lupin smiled slightly, as though remembering some long forgotten event. He turned and left through the front door. The house returned to an eerie silence.

"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs." Said Fred musingly, "Werewolf, mouse, big pawed creature, deer."

"Stag." Said George.

"What?"

"Antlers, only male deer have antlers, Prongs was a stag."

"Or an antelope, or another foreign creature with antlers."

The twins returned to their silence and calculations. For nearly twenty minutes the only sound was the scratching of parchment and the ticking of the clock on the mantelpiece.

Quite suddenly there was a sound from upstairs, both twins looked up towards the ceiling, then, startled at each other as Sirius' voice floated down from above.

"Moony! Moony! MOONY!" footsteps echoed on the stairs and Sirius entered the kitchen looking flustered, "Moo- oh, hello boys, I'd forgotten you were here, I don't suppose you've seen Remus anywhere have you?"

Fred and George merely stared at him.

"Uh, Fred, George – Remus?" Sirius seemed somewhat bemused by the twin's reaction to him, "Are you alright?"

It was George who came to his senses first, "Hmm? Remus? Said he was going out or something, he won't be long."

Sirius gave them a very peculiar look but did not think it wise to ask questions, the Weasley twins were far too much like he was at school. He made a mental note to watch his back from now on, thanked them and left. There was complete and utter silence for several long minutes whilst the reality of what had just been discovered sank in.

"Well I think we just solved a major puzzle," said Fred, wonderingly, "Who would have thought it eh? Professor Lupin, a marauder! And Sirius, the dog. Padfoot! I wonder who the other two were."

"I still wonder why they didn't set up their own joke shop, what happened to the others that kept them from it?"

"Something bad I expe-" Fred stopped.

"What?" said George.

"I overheard Mum talking, ages ago, she used the names Sirius and James in the same sentence-" Fred broke off as his mind tried desperately to catch up with where he was going.

"James?" George sounded incredulous, "As in James Potter? Father of Harry Potter?"

"Yes," said Fred softly, "that James. And I'll bet you anything he was Prongs. I can't picture him as Wormtail somehow."

There was silence again.

"We gave it back." Said George, suddenly, "The Marauders Map, we gave it to Harry."

"Do you think he knows?" asked Fred.

"He Knows." A hoarse voice said from the doorway, sometime during their conversation Lupin had returned, "We told him the night Sirius escaped the dementors a year ago."

"Good." Said Fred finally, "He deserves to know."

Lupin gave him a half-hearted smile and turned to leave.

"Wait." George's voice called him back, "Forgive me for being presumptuous, but we were wondering if you could-" he hesitated, unsure of how to proceed, "What animal was James? And-" he hesitated again, "Who was Wormtail? What became of him?"

"James was a stag." Lupin answered shortly, "And Wormtail," he spat the name, "Wormtail was a rat, an ordinary, common, garden rat, he was the Weasley pet for twelve years. His name is Peter Pettigrew, and it was because of him that the dark lord was able to return, it was because of him that an innocent man spent twelve years in Azkaban, and because of him that a fifteen-year-old child was orphaned at the age of one. I lost my life to him, that fat, ugly, pathetic excuse for a boy took away everything from so many people."

"Scabbers?" said Fred, wonderingly, "Scabbers did that?"

"That was his name here?" said Lupin, as though he already knew the answer.

"Ron said he died. He never really mentioned it."

"We all thought he was just upset. And he got the owl instead." George looked shocked.

"I thought he might appreciate something to replace his rat." Sirius slipped through the doorway into the kitchen, "It was my fault after all."

"Not really," said Fred, "at least, no more than you could blame Percy for finding him in the first place."

"And anyway," added George, "It's rather better to find out sooner, rather than waiting until Peter Pettigrew transformed in the middle of the common room."

Sirius and Lupin shuddered simultaneously.

"That," said Sirius, "is not a nice thought." He bent over the parchment in front of Fred, staring thoughtfully at it, "What do you think, Moony?" He asked Remus, before turning back to the calculations, "Shame Prongsy isn't here, he'd tell you that in about a second."

Remus laughed softly, coming to stand behind Sirius, "Isn't this just a variation on the transfiguration we did on McGonagall?"

"Which transfiguration?" asked Sirius, "There was considerably more than one."

"Sixth year. We got a week of detentions, which wasn't really fair. Good transfiguration that was."

Sirius laughed, "Oh. That transfiguration. James figured most of that himself. Can you remember it?"

"Naturally." Said Remus, "I watched him write it down."

"Ah, good old Moony, always remembers everything he reads."

Remus laughed again and picked up the quill that had been discarded on the table. Slowly he began to make alterations to Fred's original calculations, "You have to reverse the formula here, see? Which will then create an entirely different result."

"Oh." Said Fred.

Sirius laughed, "don't worry mate, took Prongs nearly three months to do that, I think we just saved you some vital time."

"And parchment." Said George.

Remus looked at him slightly strangely, "Prongs used to say that."

"I wonder how much parchment we did use up in the end." Pondered Sirius.

"Too much. Is that OK for you boys?" said Remus, "Just ask if you want anymore help."

"We will." Said Fred.

"Yes," added George, "thank you."

"Padfoot and Moony are always glad to be of service." Sirius made an elaborate bow, knocking several inkbottles to the floor where they shattered spectacularly.

"Padfoot!" Remus yelped, as his feet were splashed with ink, "I swear, your mental age hit a hiatus when you were twelve!"

"Better than being an old man, my dearest Moony."

"Liking books does not make me an old man!"

"Does."

"Does not!" Remus pushed Sirius out of the door, in a manner more reminiscent of their childhood days, leaving in their wake a stunned and silent pair of twins.


End file.
